How Breitbart.com turned ‘Friends of Hamas’ joke into a right-wing firestorm

Published

7 years ago

on

February 20, 2013

By

Dan Friedman of the New York Daily News admitted to being the unwitting source of a false rumor — promoted first by Breitbart.com editor Ben Shapiro — that Defense Secretary nominee Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) had been paid to give a speech to the organization “Friends of Hamas.” In a piece published Tuesday, Friedman explored his own inadvertent role in creating and propagating the rumor, as well as what the story says about our current media environment and its readiness to exploit half truths and outright lies in pursuit of political agendas.

ADVERTISEMENT

Friedman wrote on Tuesday, “I became part of an inadvertent demonstration of how quickly partisan agendas and the Internet can transform an obvious joke into a Washington talking point used by senators and presidential wannabes.”

On February 6, said Friedman, he phoned a Republican staffer on Capitol Hill to ask about rumors that Hagel, whose nomination has been filibustered by Senate Republicans, had addressed “controversial” groups.

Republican skepticism was centered around Hagel’s supposed hostility to Israel. “So, I asked my source,” Friedman said, “had Hagel given a speech to, say, the ‘Junior League of Hezbollah, in France?’ And: What about ‘Friends of Hamas?'”

“The names were so over-the-top, so linked to terrorism in the Middle East, that it was clear I was talking hypothetically and hyperbolically. No one could take seriously the idea that organizations with those names existed — let alone that a former senator would speak to them,” he wrote.

ADVERTISEMENT

When Friedman didn’t hear back from the source, he followed up with a snarky email, “Did he get $25K speaking fee from Friends of Hamas?”

Breitbart.com editor Ben Shapiro wrote, “On Thursday, Senate sources told Breitbart News exclusively that they have been informed one of the reasons that President Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, has not turned over requested documents on his sources of foreign funding is that one of the names listed is a group purportedly called ‘Friends of Hamas.’”

When Shapiro called the White House for comment, they hung up on him, which he took as confirmation. Shapiro ran the story and tweeted the link out to his more than 40,000 Twitter followers, touching off a right-wing media avalanche. The story was picked up by the National Review, RedState.org and other conservative media outlets. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee posited that this would be the end of Hagel’s nomination if the rumors were true.

The scandal began to gather steam, but it was only days later that Friedman contacted his source on the Hill again, asking if he had passed on information to Breitbart. No, the staffer said, but he had spoken about it to other people.

ADVERTISEMENT

Shapiro, for his part, only gradually began to admit that perhaps Friends of Hamas did not exist. But, he said to Friedman, “his story used ‘very, very specific language’ to avoid flatly claiming it did.”

“The story as reported is correct,” Shapiro insisted. “Whether the information I was given by the source is correct I am not sure.”

As the facts of the story spread, many are having a laugh at the expense of Shapiro and the right-wing media outlets that ran with the story. A satirical Friends of Hamas website was erected by Gawker’s Max Read, featuring Shapiro’s face, dancing images of anime characters and the slogan, “LOL nothing matters.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Shapiro responded to Friedman’s Daily News piece by calling Friedman a “hack,” and writing, “Welcome to the Obama media, where protecting Chuck Hagel and attacking any media who question Hagel is par for the course.”

“The story Breitbart News ran originally was accurate and clearly caveated [sic],” Shapiro said. “Dan Friedman was not the source of the information given to Breitbart News. But the media is already jumping to help Friedman push his narrative. It’s all part of the mission to protect Barack Obama and Chuck Hagel.”

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We’ve launched a weekly podcast, “We’ve Got Issues,” focused on issues, not tweets. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. We’re not part of a conglomerate, or a project of venture capital bros. From unflinching coverage of racism, to revealing efforts to erode our rights, Raw Story will continue to expose hypocrisy and harm. Unhinged from billionaires and corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We’ve launched a weekly podcast, “We’ve Got Issues,” focused on issues, not tweets. Unlike other news sites, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. We’re not part of a conglomerate, or a project of venture capital bros. From unflinching coverage of racism, to revealing efforts to erode our rights, Raw Story will continue to expose hypocrisy and harm. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

Ex-prosecutor demands congressional investigation after latest report on the FBI and Brett Kavanaugh

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had another allegation of sexual misconduct revealed on Saturday in a bombshell report in The New York Times.

"A classmate, Max Stier, saw Mr. Kavanaugh with his pants down at a different drunken dorm party, where friends pushed his penis into the hand of a female student. Mr. Stier, who runs a nonprofit organization in Washington, notified senators and the F.B.I. about this account, but the F.B.I. did not investigate and Mr. Stier has declined to discuss it publicly," the newspaper reported.